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Update 2: Valve has decided not to distribute Rape Day on Steam. "After significant fact-finding and discussion, we think 'Rape Day' poses unknown costs and risks and therefore won't be on Steam," the company wrote in a blog post. "We respect developers’ desire to express themselves, and the purpose of Steam is to help developers find an audience, but this developer has chosen content matter and a way of representing it that makes it very difficult for us to help them do that."Update: The creator of Rape Day, who says they've tried to make a game for sociopaths, has posted another update on Steam. It's ready for launch, they say, but the review process is "taking longer than expected". "I learned that because the game contains sexual content and content that may be illegal in some countries, the review process will take much longer than expected. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a more specific time estimate for you guys."That sexual content is rape and murder, and … [Read more...] about Steam is currently listing a game called Rape Day in which you play as a ‘serial killer rapist’ (Updated)

For the last several years, Valve has grappled with the question of which games should and shouldn't be allowed on Steam. Now the largest distributor of PC games faces a major test of its rules around content, as attention centers on one of the most objectionable games to appear on the platform: Rape Day, a visual novel in which the player "controls the choices of a menacing serial killer rapist during a zombie apocalypse." "Verbally harass, kill, and rape women as you choose to progress the story," reads the official description of the game on Steam, which Polygon reported on this morning. "It's a dangerous world with no laws. The zombies enjoy eating the flesh off warm humans and brutally raping them but you are the most dangerous rapist in town." The page, which cannot be viewed unless you've logged into Steam and set your store preferences to allow 'Adult Only Sexual Content,' includes a trailer and screenshots of 3D-modeled characters which depict the scenes described."Murder … [Read more...] about Steam is currently listing a game called Rape Day in which you play as a ‘serial killer rapist’

This interview is part of our Road to the IGF series. You can find the rest by clicking here. Through a series of varied vignettes following adorable bunnies suffering through horrible events with an absurd cheer, Nathalie Lawhead's Everything is going to be OK explores the unfair tragedies and situations in life through a lens of ridiculousness and hope. The Nuovo Award-nominated experience, which carries players through dozens of different situations and interactions, shrugs off the idea of the player being in control, giving them minor interactions that might not change the outcome, but may at least give them some comfort or a smile in the face of their lives falling apart. Gamasutra spoke with Lawhead about creating this varied experience, and what it means to make a game that speaks up about the pains many suffer through alone. What's your background in making games? I started as a net-artist in the late 90's (early 2000's). My first piece was released in 1999. It was … [Read more...] about Road to the IGF: Nathalie Lawhead’s Everything is going to be OK

Logan Paul’s horrific video of a dead body in Japan’s “suicide forest,” and YouTube’s failure to moderate it properly, has raised sharp criticism about how the streaming channel moderates content from its top creators, if at all. How did the video make it near the top of YouTube’s trending list? Why didn’t YouTube respond when users first flagged the video? Why didn’t YouTube remove a video — of a man who had recently committed suicide — instead of waiting for Paul to remove it himself? We still don’t have answers for these, but I’m more concerned about the lack of action YouTube has taken since the video was removed. YouTube is a platform stacked with controversial creators, who consistently test the boundaries of what’s acceptable and what isn’t. Only a few creators have faced YouTube’s wrath and attempts to isolate them. YouTube’s behavior is not necessarily a double standard; it’s … [Read more...] about YouTube is playing favorites, and it all comes down to advertisers

Four days from today, Nintendo's latest console will go on sale. A little over four years since the launch of Wii U, a little over four months since Nintendo announced Switch, and to many, the system seems like a breath of fresh air — a game console Transformer full of potential with a steady stream of software to back it up. To some, though, the system seems incomplete. From early reports of controllers that don't properly sync to a limited launch lineup, a lack of non-game apps like Netflix, a missing Virtual Console library and lingering questions about the online service, there's a simplicity to Switch's launch that recalls the '90s — Zelda is Mario 64, and if you don't want that or a few other games, you might not need the system right away. In time, Nintendo will address those issues. Yet more than most consoles, Switch remains a bit of a mystery at launch. Are motion controls going to be a big part of it? What type of player will Switch developers cater to? And will … [Read more...] about What the game industry thinks of Nintendo’s Switch